Best DVD Burning Software Reviews – 2013 Edition

I’d like to revisit an old hobby that I still use on occasion, which is burning DVD’s. Even though the trend is shifting to streaming and portable video there is still a need for dvd burning and there are still quality companies out there making reliable burning software. This will be a quick overview of what the best DVD burning software titles are in 2013. The classic brands are still around like Nero, Roxio Creator, and Ashampoo. But there are also new brands like DVD-Ranger, FilePop, and Wondershare which I’ll go over as well and why these might be better options for most.

First up are the lesser known titles. I believe that these are a better choice for the majority of people because they are not ‘bloatware’ meaning that they offer the most commonly used features of a disc burning software. Mainly DVD copying, DVD Authoring, DVD creating, DVD converting, and of course basic DVD burning.

DVD-Ranger

DVD-Ranger is a multimedia suite from PixaByte Technology. This is a development team that is still dedicated to making the best DVD/Blu-Ray software on the market. There are only a handful of actual coders for this type of software still in existance these guys are still writing quality code. DVD-Ranger offers the following:

FilePop HD Platinum

FilePop HD uses the same code base as DVD-Ranger so the functionality and quality is the same. The main thing that makes this a better choice is that it costs less. Reason is that the name is not as well known and are offering discounts to get the name out there and being used by the masses. So now is the time to jump on board with a high quality burning/copying/converting engine at a entry level price while it’s still available.

Wondershare

The development team at Wondershare has done quite a bit over the past few years to make them one of the more popular specific task software makers around. Meaning that they offer ‘single’ function software for those that mainly do one tasks and don’t need all the other functions that the ‘big boys’ have in their products. ie. DVD to iPod converters, or DVD Creators. However their flagship multimedia software is called Video Converter Ultimate. In addition to offering one of the fastest converting engines they include:

Now that I’ve gone over the more specialized burning applications, lets look at the ‘big boys’ of DVD burning and what they are offering in their latest releases.

Creator NXT

The Creator series has had a handful of owners over the past few years. Originally this software started as Adaptec EZ CD Creator before Roxio took it over in 2005. Sonic Solutions eventually bought Roxio and changed the name to Creator. Over the past year Corel Corp now owns the Creator line and the new offering is Creator NXT. Over all these changes they have added more and more features to this software line. Now one of the largest collections of multimedia software that you can find, Creator NXT support practically all devices that you can get video to and from as well as all gadgets that hold digital data. From cameras to video cameras to smartphones to game systems to yes even DVD and Blu-Ray media.

This is what I call bloatware because this software is so big that they have to span it across multiple titles all bundled under one roof. That’s not really a bad thing, just know that there may be way to much code here to even understand half of it and you probably won’t even use the majority of the features, ever. I know I don’t and I use multimedia software quite a bit.

Nero 12 Platinum

Another one of the original DVD burning applications. This at one time was called Nero Burning-ROM and was the go-to software for burning to CD or DVD. But as multimedia changed into other formats Nero started offering tools to go along with it. So now their latest offering called Nero 12 Platinum is similar in features and functionality as Creator NXT. Meaning that it may have too many features that you will probably never use. But don’t let that detract you from the overall performance. Nero is still a rock solid suite of tools that will let you do practically anything you need done with video, audio, or data. There are so many things that you can do that it’s probably best to refer you to the features list here.

Wrapping It Up

So this list is what I would recommend anyone looking at if you are in need of a DVD burning software today. There are free titles like ImgBurn, BurnOn CD/DVD, and ISOBurner but these are usually limited to burning existing data or video projects that have been authored with another tool. So if working with multimedia use this handy chart for a quick reference:

Rob Boirun is the CEO of Reviewster.com which offers ratings and reviews on software and tech gadgets. After working for GEAR software which makes a burning API for vendors such as Apple, Symantec, and others I decided that storage will have a big future. You can follow Rob on Twitter @robboirun or on G+Rob's Google Profile

6 thoughts on “Best DVD Burning Software Reviews – 2013 Edition”

I’ve been operating with the free software for a while, but it’s time for an upgrade. Actually, that upgrade is long overdue–on that note, thanks for these reviews!Jacob Arvin’s recent post ..Affilorama.com Review: Scam or Legit